Zooplankton Community Dynamics in Temporary Mediterranean Wetlands: Which Drivers Are Controlling the Seasonal Species Replacement?

Juan Diego Gilbert,Inmaculada De Vicente,Fernando Ortega,Francisco Guerrero

doi:10.3390/w13111447

Juan Diego Gilbert, Inmaculada De Vicente + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w13111447

Copy DOI

Journal: Water	Publication Date: May 21, 2021
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Jaén, University of Granada

Abstract

Temporary Mediterranean wetlands are characterized by both intra and interannual variations in their environmental conditions. These inherent fluctuations in limnological features affect the seasonal variation in the structure and dynamics of the aquatic communities. In this study, we hypothesized that zooplankton community is coupled to seasonal changes of the environmental variables along the hydroperiod. To get this purpose, the study was focused in monitoring, by collecting monthly samples during an annual period, seven temporary Mediterranean ponds located in the south-eastern region of the Iberian Peninsula (Alto Guadalquivir region, Andalusia). The relationships between zooplankton community and the different limnological variables were analyzed based on two approaches: a Spearman correlation analysis and a correspondence canonical analysis (CCA). The results have shown that chlorophyll-a concentration, Secchi depth, total nitrogen concentration, wetland area and depth were the variables with a greater influence on the zooplankton community, explaining the zooplankton species replacement. Moreover, optima and tolerance of the zooplankton species were obtained from the position of species within CCA diagram, allowing the separation of different groups of zooplankton along the hydroperiod. We finally highlight that the monitoring of zooplankton community and environmental conditions are necessary to evaluate how theses singular and endangered aquatic ecosystems will be affected by anthropogenic activities in the future.

Highlights

Mediterranean ecosystems drastically differ from the colder-temperate aquatic ecosystems of Northern European in both structure and function [1]
When the seasonal differences between all the ponds are taken into account, the results show the same results, both for environmental variables (F(1,3) = 7.801; p < 0.0001) and for the zooplankton community (F(1,3) = 1.611; p < 0.01), reflecting a different seasonal dynamic
The Mediterranean region includes high-diversified wetlands with unusual limnological characteristic that makes them different from the temperate aquatic systems [1]. These wetlands are valuable in terms of salinity, which range from freshwater to hypersaline and, in terms of the hydroperiod comprising a gradient from permanent to temporary systems [1,29]

Summary

Introduction

Mediterranean ecosystems drastically differ from the colder-temperate aquatic ecosystems of Northern European in both structure and function [1]. One of the most definitory aspects of these ecosystems is the temporality of many of them, which normally begin to fill in the autumn and dry up in the summer This conditions in many cases intra-annual differences in salinity values, so that they contain waters with lower salinity at the beginning of the hydrological cycle and more saline waters at the end of the hydroperiod [1]. This situation is responsible for changes in their communities and ecological processes, making them ecologically rich ecosystems supporting a high diversity [2]. This concern has induced a change in the direction of research in the European framework trying to ensure the conservation of these ecosystems, with the implementation of diverse management and protection directives (Habitat Directive Natura 2000 network, Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC)

Methods

Results

Conclusion